greeting

Friday, August 08, 2008

So I am told that I have been catching browns. They do look a lot like the guy above, most distinctively with the row of pink spots that can appear along the midline.

Caught a bunch yesterday. I really need to spend more time between the big rock (my name for it) and the vehicle bridge. Was in a huge rush yesterday on the last stretch of water and was getting all kinds of action there right around 12 noon.

Family came up and we picnicked at the Visitors' Center. On a lark just fooled around in the very shallow water near all of the picnic tables and must have hauled in five teeny-tiny fish in 15 minutes, mostly on a Copper John that they could barely fit in their mouths. Silly fishies.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Been out there a half-dozen times in the last couple of weeks. and am having a blast with it. Yesterday morning (Monday, 8/4, 6 a.m. to 11 a.m.) I caught ten fish over pretty much the whole main stretch in the park, i.e., the lower pedestrian bridge near the lower parking to the upper vehicle bridge before you get to the visitor center. Morning was cool enough that I put on waders and a light windebreaker. But as soon as the sun came into the canyon, maybe around 6:30 or so, things warmed up nicely. It was a beautiful day, a little overcast, warm but not scorching.

Was catching on nymphs until about 9. After then the fish seemed to start looking up and I started catching on a ca. 18# caddis up top. Overall, 4 were really small (i.e., 6" or so) and 6 were just small (maybe 8-10").

I have been looking at some maps and need to drive back up through the canyon ... some maps seem to suggest that you can drive all the way to Gross Reservoir, which I'd really love to do. But not sure if the Family Truckster is up to the task. We'll see.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Colleague invites me up to his place, from which we can fish. Beautiful drive to his place, beautiful water to fish, but not as much time on the water as I would have liked. First day fishing on the new line (Gold something or other, 5 weight) and the casting is good. I identify a likely pool on the broad and shallow Colorado and get going. First pool, maybe 2nd or 3rd cast, get a nice strike on the nymph and have a real fighter online for about 45-60 seconds. I am feeling really confident. Then my knot comes undone and fishy (fat-looking underwater from a few feet) earns his freedom and a nice $2 lip piercing. D'oh! When tying the knot I knew it probably wasn't good enough, but I got impatient. Never. Get. Impatient. When. Flyfishing. I guess this was something other than what I am used to (not a brookie, I guess) because the fish was really fighting. Oh well.

Had another good size fish almost in-hand, when it flopped off the hook at the last minute. Keep the tip up, man!

Caught a smallish one (8-10"). Succesfully spliced two pieces of line after a good, patient 20 minutes or so. Around 3:45 the fish start rising, around 3:50 it starts to rain, and just as I am tying on a dry fly to see how hungrily they're rising Colleague and wife and young adult son catch up with me and signal that they're done. Sigh. So not enough time on the water, and I really wanted to try up top for a bit.

Apparently a moose was spotted in the area, and Colleague says they saw an eagle up-close. All-in-all, a nice day and a spot worth revisiting.

Ends up being 2.5 hour drive to small, blown out creek on private water (paying $60 for the privilege). I catch the same fish twice, I think, in the very first pool, though I made two passes on the mile or so heading upstream (south on the map).

I am going to try to post some recollections of my too-infrequent fly-fishing excursions. I am rapidly becoming obsessed with this incredible pastime and want to remember where I fish and how it goes.

I am a novice fly-fisherman and frankly don't have 5% of the knowledge I'd really need to do things right. Hell, I can't even identify what kind of trout I catch, less still what kind of fly I use to do so. But the bottom line is that I have been out and at it, loving it, and want to remember as I can.

I do know that I am using an ancient 5-weight Orvis rod and an Orvis reel on-loan from a colleague. I am mostly grabbing flies and such catch-as-catch-can, though trying as often as possible to shop at Rocky Mountain Anglers in Boulder.